To appeal to some people who do not care for the religious nature of the 12-steps, but still find the 12-step approach helpful, several alternative versions of the steps have been developed. Here are a couple.
Here are the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and their translation by an "Agnostics" group interested in making the steps more available to persons of humanistic, agnostic or atheistic beliefs:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable. (Group-Same)
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. (Group-Came to believe and to accept that we needed strengths beyond our awareness and resources to restore us to sanity.)
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the car of God as we understand him. (Group-Made a decision to entrust our wills and our lives to the care of the collective wisdom and resources of those who have searched before us.)
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. (Group-Same).
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. (Group-Admitted to ourselves, without reservation, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.)
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. (Group-We are ready to accept help in letting go of all our defects of character.)
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. (Group-With humility and openness sought to eliminate our shortcomings.)
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. (Group-Same.)
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. (Group-Same)
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it. (Group-Same).
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out. (Group-Sought through meditation to improve our spiritual awareness and our understanding of the AA way of life and to discover the power to carry out that way of life.)
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principals in all our affairs. (Group-Same).
These steps were written by the renowned psychologist B. F.
Skinner as an alternative to the traditional 12-Steps for nonreligious
newcomers. First published in "The Humanist
1. We accept the fact that all our efforts to stop drinking have failed.
2. We believe that we must turn elsewhere for help.
3. We turn to our fellow men and women, particularly those who have struggled with the same problem.
4. We have made a list of the situations in which we are most likely to drink.
5. We ask our friends to help us avoid those situations.
6. We are ready to accept the help they give us.
7. We honestly hope they will help.
8. We have made a list of the persons we have harmed and to whom we hope to make amends.
9. We shall do all we can to make amends, in any way that will not cause further harm.
10. We will continue to make such lists and revise them as needed.
11. We appreciate what our friends have done and are doing to help us.
12. We, in turn, are ready to help others who may come to us in the same way.
